Posted
by
ScuttleMonkey
on Monday January 18, 2010 @01:40PM
from the if-you-can't-beat-em-squeeze-harder dept.

For the last couple of days news has been trickling in about how the US is trying to ram IP laws down Costa Rica's throat by blocking their access to the US sugar market. Techdirt has a good summary of the various commentaries and a related scoop in the Bahamas where the US is also applying IP pressure. "The first is in Costa Rica, which is included in the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Yet like with other free trade agreements that the US has agreed to elsewhere, this one includes draconian intellectual property law requirements. I still cannot understand why intellectual monopoly protectionism — the exact opposite of 'free trade' — gets included in free trade agreements. At least in Costa Rica, a lot of people started protesting these rules, pointing out that it would be harmful for the economy, for education and for healthcare. So the Costa Rican government has not moved forward with such laws. How has the US responded? It's blocking access to the US market of Costa Rican sugar until Costa Rica approves new copyright laws."

Also, the link to TFA stops one letter short of the word "throat".
Look, if we spent all day poking around poorly written summaries and the overall lack of proofreading on this site... then, well... never mind.

When they STILL our shit, what do they make?I know stills are used to produce alcohol and perfume, but our shit sure is not perfume.Maybe they use it to make our beer? Foreigners claim it tastes like ----.;)